A New Product!

OK. I lied. It's not really a "new" product because it's been out for about a month BUT this is the first time that I will post something about it.. so it kinda is new.

I wanted to share about my ELA Houghton Mifflin Theme 4 for second grade. When I began creating these units, I did not know what I was getting myself into. Each unit is 250+ pages and takes HOURS and HOURS of work. I mean, I really do enjoy it... even if it does make me all cross eyed and all in the end. Ha!

My units are designed to be aligned to the common core and to integrate the latest strategies/skills. Here are some things that are included:

- comprehension skills strategies at the end of every story using DOK 2 and 3 (depth of knowledge) questions.
- Thinking Maps and teacher "cheat sheets".
- Activities that connect text to world, text to text, and text to self
- Text dependent questions and activities
- sequencing activities
- writing activities
- phonics skills
-spelling lists
-differentiated activities
- vocabulary activities
- vocabulary cards with realistic pictures

and MUCH MORE!

I am really proud of these units not only because I put my sweat and blood into it (not to mention ignoring ALL my mommy and wifey duties, too) but more importantly, I've gotten so many great responses from them! They have been shared at district inservices and teachers and administrators have given me so much kind positive feedback! Isn't that what teaching is all about?? Sharing and creating resources that are useful in our classrooms. That is why I love TPT! It's teachers that create resources who UNDERSTAND what's happening in our classrooms versus someone up in the Dept of Education who may not have an idea of what is truly happening inside the class.

Here are some snapshots of my unit:

Focus wall labels

Vocabulary picture cards

Writing activity

Main Idea/Supporting Details

Bubble map with text dependent characteristics

Thinking Map

*** UPDATE: If you are interested in this Thinking Map (above pic) and MANY more with Depth and Complexity icons, please take a look at my Print and Go Thinking Maps with Depth and Complexity unit. ALL maps come with samples and are EDITABLE so that you can tailor it to the needs of your classroom.  :)

Text to Self and Text to World connections

Comprehension and skills assessment after every story. Common Core standards are listed for each question.

I know... that was a lot to scroll through! Thanks for sticking with me. :) If you know anybody who uses Houghton Mifflin for the ELA curriculum, I would love for you to direct them to my HM Resource if you think they could benefit from it. Trust me, they won't be sorry. :)

Blessings,

2014 and Five for Friday

Annnnnnd I'm back to reality!

I really did not want to come back to reality after the holidays. Like ever! It was a busy one and well, I decided to leave the blogging world for the month of December since I was barely swimming above water. More like drowning deep. Like I'm already drowning and someone throws me a kid to hold (Jim Gaffigan humor). Seriously.

Soooo after taking that off my plate, and after all the parties and all family gatherings, we got to spend some nice and well deserved family time with just ....us. We needed that.  My hubby is a pastor and so naturally Christmas time is a busy busy time for the church. I love that, but it's also so very nice when he gets a nice break.

This year I really want to focus on being more consistent with my blog. I've gotten my feet wet with Teachers Pay Teachers  last year and it's been such a blessing! God has blessed me beyond measure. I mean, I'm no Deanna Jump or anything but I did manage to make a bit extra to pay off some debt. But now I'm ready to focus more on my blogging. I HAVE a plan. I THINK it will work. I HOPE it will work. :)

Sooooo I began writing this post on Thursday thinking I would get ahead of the game. Then I got sick. Now it's Saturday night and I'm determined to finish my Five for FRIDAY post AND now my little 3 yr old is calling 'Mamaaaaa!!!" from her bedroom as we speak (waaaaaay past her bedtime!!). Be right back.

(Jeopardy music)

OOOOkkayyyy. I'm back. What was I talking about??? Oh yea... reality and how I'm forced to be in it. Well, my first week back at school was great. I actually thought Monday would be brutal but it wasn't too bad. Kids were quiet ... possibly tired... but I didn't care because..... they were QUI.ET!! :)  YAY!!  If you have been following my post, you will know that this year my kids are great but they are a bit chattier than previous years. I'm using the word "chattier" VERY loosely here. BUT they were QUIET on Monday!!! Small victories. Small victories.

It's still the weekend and so I'm linking up with  Doodle Bugs for her Five for Friday

 My kids were QUIET! LOL. They did well on their first day back. Yes, they were most likely sleepy but it was nice. :) We got to add in a little brain break because our brains all need a little break the first week back to work from vacation. They LOVED "What Does The Fox Say?"

My bestie just gave birth TODAY!!!! After years of convincing her hubby of the idea of baby #3 and trying, she conceived and had her healthy baby boy today...right on her hubby's birthday! Isn't God just awesome??!!!  :) EVEN more amazing, she did it all natural...no epidural. ALL 9 LBS 10 OZ of his pink plump body!!!! I'm hurting just thinking of it! Anyways, they have nicknamed this little boy Baby Batman and so I just had to make these little onesies for him!

We got a snake over Christmas. I know that it didn't happen this week but I figured since I have not blogged in a while, I can share this. My boys named her Caylee and she is a ball python. I actually don't mind snakes but feeding them is a different story. All I have to say is poor little mouse! :/

Picking up the snake from the breeder

Karis loves the snake!

Dinner.... :/

Every year we ring in the New Year with our friends, east coast time! Not only do my kids begin to melt down if we kept them up until midnight, I just don't think I would make it. So at 9 pm west coast time, we watch the ball drop in NY! :) We blow horns and drink cider and all is good and we are in bed by midnight! Ha!!

These kids have been growing up together for years!

The mommies!

The kiss! Happy New Year!!! 2014!!

For the past 2 years I've done a Jesus Birthday Party for all the kids at Christmas time. We decorate gingerbread houses and all pile into cars looking at Christmas lights. Although this year we did not get around to looking at lights, we did get to do all the other fun stuff. I held a blanket drive to give to the homeless as a way of giving back. After all, it's Jesus' birthday and so how come we get presents??? We can take care of others as our gift to Him!

No party is complete without a birthday cake!

My hubby and I premade all these gingerbread houses out of graham crackers the night before.

Our ping pong table was perfect for all these kids!!

My sweet Karis!

Hope you had a wonderful break and welcome back to reality and to 2014! You will be hearing from me more frequently. Hopefully. LOL!

Blessings,

Five for Friday

Happy day after Thanksgiving Friends!!!

Today will be a super short post since I am out of town and get spotty reception.

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone and every year around this time, I begin to get real sad. Not to put a damper on things, but I really REALLY love this time of year and everything just flies by soooo quickly after Thanksgiving. My friends joke all the time with me and tell me that I never really get to enjoy this season because I'm too busy worried that it will be over soon. It's like those sleepless nights when you know you only have 5 hrs of sleep, 4 hrs, 3 hrs, OH NO... now only 2 hrs of sleep left before that alarm clock goes off!   That's how it usually is for me. BUT THIS year I'm trying to sloooow things down and be in the moment. I'm currently listening to Christmas music without trying to feel stressed that I have nothing done for Christmas.

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs for her Five for Friday Linky Party.

Every Thanksgiving we visit my husband's family up in Northern CA. We LOVE coming here because life is slow here and we seem to be able to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. They live out in the country and are the MOST hospitable people ever! This year, they had 30 people over for dinner! It was a fun mix of boys and girls. My boys were super excited to see their boy cousins so that they could get down and dirty and be ALL boys! This week consisted of shooting bb guns, dirt bike riding, quad riding, digging a HUGE dirt hole, having a dirt fight, and many other fun boy activities that include getting dirt in your ears and every other crevasse in your body.

This weekend was our first time ever sleeping in the Walmart parking lot! We had a long drive home from up north and my hubby was getting really tired. And well, since I cannot pull our trailer (total length of car and trailer = 60 ft!), we had to pull over and sleep somewhere for the night. The beauty of Walmart is that they allow RVs to camp overnight in their parking lot. We did and in the morning, I walked myself in the store, bad breath, pjs, and bed head and all, and ordered some coffee and breakfast in their McDonald's. I would not at all be surprised if I showed up in some "This is what you see at Walmart"  website that goes viral. I was QUITE.A.SIGHT! I really wish I would have snapped a quick pic of myself, but I didn't.

About 2 weeks ago, I received this horrible email from TPT saying that some of my products broke some copyright rules. I was shocked! Everything I created was my original work. I contacted them and found out that you are not allowed to have the words "Daily 5" on your title page. After frantically trying to change my product name, answering emails, revising, sending out the updated resources to those who paid for it but no longer had access to it (TPT pulled those units off the site), I was able to get everything back in working order. I contacted the 2 Sisters (creators of the Daily 5) and spoke with the actual copyright rep who dinged me for my products and told her what exactly were in my resources. SHE.WAS.AWESOME!  She understood that I wasn't trying to imply that my products were endorsed by the Daily 5 and thanked me for contacting her to clarify my resources/intentions. She offered to personally contact TPT about removing the strike against me (3 strikes and you're out on TPT) and even gave me a one year complimentary Daily 5/Cafe subscription to their website! WOW!! Also, TPT was awesome in helping me out throughout this whole process! This was such a happy ending!! :)

We began decorating the house for Christmas and I LOVE it!!! I love this time of year! I wish that I could keep my decor up for more than a month but when the first week of January hits, everything is down and packed up. In the meantime, I will enjoy it while it lasts.

The reason we celebrate this season.

Princesses need to comb hair while Christmas trees are being set up.

LOVE my Dollar Store find! I found a nativity set from the dollar store. Each piece was a dollar so i guess maybe I didn't get the best deal. LOL. I do love it though and am excited to finally have Joseph in the scene. Last year when I bought the pieces, they ran out of Joseph but I still bought it knowing that this year Joseph would be back in stock. He's kinda important in the nativity scene... don't you think? Ha!

I've also always wanted a little cottage.. which I found individually at the Dollar Store, too. The fabric snow could use a lot more work but I love my little clay pieces!

Hope you had an exciting Thanksgiving weekend!

By for now Friends!